Around the company building, 10 self-designed charging columns were erected by the employees of CuroCon GmbH. Here in the area of the energetic automation new functions and product details are developed, implemented and ultimately established. Different charging technologies and services are used in each case. The installation of the charging columns at the company building took place in 2019, and further development work has been ongoing ever since.
Fig. 1 : Conversion work on the company building in Zwingenberg, 2019. Source: CuroCon GmbH.
The charging stations developed and tested at CuroCon GmbH are also used by customers. The customers benefit not only from the expertise of CuroCon GmbH, the reliability of its systems and the skills of its engineers, but also from the topicality of further developments and the constant expansion of the charging park. Conversely, the engineers at CuroCon GmbH know exactly what requirements are made and what a charging station must be able to do thanks to a lively exchange with interested parties and customers from the industry.
The use of renewable energies in the form of photovoltaics - and thus also a partially self-sufficient energy supply - are the basis of the development. Last but not least, CuroCon GmbH is able to make its contribution to the traffic and energy turnaround through its charging park.
Charge and load control for more efficient energy supply offers the following advantages:
- Failure safety of the charging infrastructure
- Grid stability
- chargeing according to concept
The charging stations of the CuroCon charging park are subdivided into:
- Column 1 and 2 each: 50 kW DC CCS(up to 700V) + 22kW Type 2
- Pillar 3 and 4 each: 22 kW AC Type 2
- Column 5-10 each: 11 kW AC Type 2
Fig. 2: Floor plan of the outdoor area of CuroCon GmbH incl. numbering of the charging columns. Source: CuroCon GmbH.
The following software features are currently implemented or prepared in the CuroCon GmbH loading park:
- AC charging takes place via the Type 2 plug and DC charging via CCS (Combined Charging System) - charging takes place via the Type 2 charging plug
- Load and energy management: The power available at the house connection is distributed to the charging points. A priority system is used for this. In our case, the DC columns have the highest priority and are released the maximum possible power by the load management. The remaining AC columns have a descending priority from column 1-10. The priority can be set variably by the customer.
- Inclusion of a photovoltaic system in the load management is prepared
- Visualization of all columns and their status in CuroControl®
- Daily energy quota configurable per column
- Weekly timer / shutdown on holidays, weekends, etc.
- Fast redistribution of available energy to other charging vehicles, e.g. if a vehicle is already fully charged and therefore no longer charging
- Scalable software: Additional charging points can be configured quickly
- Loose connection detection
- DC main contactor monitoring (counter during switching, in the event of a fault, of high currents)
- Parking time registration
- Communication to higher-level controls (e.g. CuroControl®)
The columns will continue to be configured, adapted and expanded in the coming years. This year, for example, the two DC columns have already been expanded to include one AC type 2 charging point each. In the long term, the RE generator is to be expanded by a wind energy source to compensate for seasonal fluctuations. Furthermore, the optimization of the charging shift algorithm is to be achieved by forecasting the weather. Another goal is to extend the charging management system to include a reservation system for fleet charging and a backend system with OCPP for payment processing. The charging management system is to be prepared for bidirectional charging.
The development steps are promoted and documented in the bachelor's and master's theses, among other things. You can find more information on the topic of theses at our Careers page.
Do you have any questions about our loading park? Then write to us via our contact form.
Sources:
- CuroCon GmbH: internal reports
- Ehrhard, Jasmin: Konzeptionierung eines Energiemanagements mit intelligenter Last- und Ladergelung; Bachelor thesis, 2020.
- Charging technology for e-mobility with SIMATIC | Automation | Siemens Germany
- Picture above Source: Siemens
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